Pocket Full of Posies

So this pretty party was a shower for my friend Bethany and her first baby to be, Parker Gracen. I was really excited to do an outdoor, Spring-time shower and immediately got inspired by a party posted by Pen N' Paperflowers. Having a smaller budget, I found some easy diy ideas that turned out fantastic. 

This is actually an email-invite I designed on Punchbowl. I love this site because you have a lot of freedom with layout and design of your card. 

This ribbon chandelier was an idea from Martha Stewart. It really brought all our colors together and looked great over the food table.

These diy Fabric Poms turned out SO GREAT!! Thanks Lindsay!!! And they're reusable...ya really can't beat that! 

Of course, the backyard had a facelift in the party color-scheme.

We used dPhotography again and I set up a fabric back-drop for some super cute pics!

This jean pocket garland idea was initially what sold me on the theme. Love it!

To decorate the outdoors, I purchased a few frames at Goodwill and added paper flowers and pinwheels.
The "P" was also given as a gift for Parker's room.

Gotta say a special thanks to my family for helping with flower crafting! :)

This Shower's Sure to be a Hoot

A few month's back I was honored to help host a baby shower for my friend Lindsey Stephens. After seeing all the precious ideas on Pinterest we decided an 

Owl theme would be perfect for her little boy Parker.

These rain drops have made several appearances at different showers. The most challenging thing about them is storage. Hopefully I've figured it out this time... taped into a tri-fold board.

Sweet Lindsey in one of her Pregnancy photos.
Taken by Dabney Fletcher of DPhotography.

Cut out letters and pasted them to pages of an old book.
A Silhouette would have made this so much easier....some day!!

Fun photo props!

We placed a chalkboard out side to welcome guests.

Jenny Thompson found a couple of really cute food ideas that played off our theme.

I think this idea was discovered on Pinterest. Honestly what did we do before we had that?
She dipped these donut holes in Nutella and chocolate sprinkles and gave them a pretzel stick stem.
So easy... precious... and most importantly... delicious. 

Because this was a morning shower, Jenny actually made banana nut muffins and topped them with cream cheese icing. They were a hit. Tiny Nutter Butter cookies and M&Ms made the eyes
and she used an orange TicTac for the beak.

The overal effect (minus the food) :)

Cookies & Milk on the Farm

 This pretty party was a baby shower for my friend Lindsay. I co-hosted with Becca Woolfolk. We were inspired by a Milk and Cookies birthday party by Sweeten Your Day.

This was a DIY project using small canvasses, burlap, paint and brads.

Tiny pull horse came right out of baby Noah's cowboy room. :)

The wooden crates were found at JoAnn's.  Red gingham napkins were
found at Hobby Lobby and folded to look like handkerchiefs.

Party Favors: cookie mix in a jar! 

Guests could choose the "extras" for their cookie mix. 

Milk Mustaches were great photo props. 

Flowers at a baby boy shower are always hard, but these cotton puffs
I found at Target worked perfectly inside my boots! :)

We had lots of delicious cookies to snack on! Thanks Becca!

Nothing goes better with cookies than milk!

The spread

I found this idea on Pinterest, but Stephanie from Let Them Eat Cake brought them to life!!!

We're sorry to go, but we really mustache! 

The First Post

Let's just get this out of the way and absolve the enormous pressure a first post always carries. I'm a bit of a perfectionist. At times this trait is paralyzing as I attempt to wow everyone with my wit and cleverness of phrasing when it comes to blogging. Those who love me best tell me to get over myself and just get to it (such a wonderful support system). So, here goes..

Starting off by stating the obvious...Hi, I'm Amanda Marie and I love to plan parties! 

I hope that this blog will become a space for me to share ideas, post tutorials and basically just show off how supremely talented I am! Haha. Maybe some day you will pay me to help you plan your perfect event, and maybe I will accept your money and completely blow your mind!!! 

Welcome to A Pretty Party Planner!